Enterprises are increasingly monitoring which entities (e.g., computing systems, individuals) access their data. Not only is such monitoring required to comply with various laws and regulations, but such monitoring can be used for other purposes such as data security which focuses on the confidentiality of certain data and also protects its integrity (against manipulation, etc.). Authorizations can control restrictions established for read and write access to confidential data. Data access logging, in this context, can be used to protocol access and to detect unauthorized access.
Data access can also be monitored in an effort to protect personal information of users. In addition to maintaining the integrity of users' personal data, access to such data must be restricted in order to comply with various health and privacy laws.
Furthermore, data access monitoring can be used for data classification purposes with various data having different levels of confidentiality. The classification is related to the content only. It is not derivable from technical/formal attributes or the data type.